


Heartstrings

by Dzuljeta



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dimension Travel, F/M, Fluff, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pete's World, Reunions, Reunited and It Feels So Good, Romance, Time Lady Rose Needs to Happen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2018-12-31 17:30:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12137535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dzuljeta/pseuds/Dzuljeta
Summary: Rose enters the university she has always secretly planned she would. Her happiness and excitement do not go unnoticed...





	1. Loving You

**Author's Note:**

> BBC owns everything.
> 
>  
> 
> (No, _Zing!..._ and this story aren't related. Maybe I'll tell you the reason of picking such titles one day.)

**Heartstrings**

 

**1\. Loving You**

 

 

“I love art, Mum! Love painting,” Rose has kept repeating the same words to Jackie over and over again. "It makes me happy! Makes me feel free!"

“You should have specialised in something completely different! Something _useful_! What good has that bloody University of the Arts has ever given you?” Jackie spoke with disdain. “You know we have barely managed to get you through it! Were it not for my friends, you'd have been kicked out years ago for being unable to pay that atrocity of a price for those goddamn studies!”

“Are you _done_ , Mum?" Rose could not help but feel an unuttered reproof in her posture whenever they began to talk about it. Rose knew she was no genius. Her Mum knew she was no artistic  genius to be able to study for free! Of course, she was never told so openly, but it hurt just the same.

"I'm off to meet with some friends, yeah?” Rose smiled at Jackie instead. "I have promised!"

“Friends... Your starry-eyed artistic friends, you mean?” She grimaced. “During all these years, you haven't even managed to get yourself a decent bloke!”

Rose was used to Jackie's tantrums already. While some of it has still hurt, she has learnt to hide it soon enough.

“I'm doing something I love, Mum!”

“Your studies should have at least had some promise, love. Now, it seems we are doomed to remain poor for good,” Jackie giggled bitterly, unwilling to cause Rose more pain than she has. “I'm sorry, love.”

“I need to go now, Mum! See you later!”

Jackie nodded, sad to notice her daughter was becoming more and more like her friends from the university. Starry-eyed, about what? About looking at, perhaps even painting something?

 

Rose has turned around the corner, knowing Mum would not be able to see her from there... And broke into a run, turning to a different direction entirely. Had Jackie seen it, she might have thought some of Rose's friends might have got her involved in something unacceptable.

* * *

Instead, Rose has only fallen into the Doctor's expectant arms. He smiled at her adoringly, his look worried..

“Jackie, isn't it?”

Rose nodded. Four years of pretending. It has only been hard the first several months. Jackie has kept whining all along.

“You have your diploma, after all, Rose. That's all that matters!” He planted a kiss atop her head.

“If only she understood that,” the girl muttered.

“As I understand it, Jackie wouldn't be happy until you have sold some of your paintings for a lot of money, love. Let's do it!” The Doctor grinned at her.

“That would be cheating,” Rose whined.

“Not necessarily, love. I'm sure a lot of people would adore your paintings!

She shrugged. “Are you ready to let go of some of my paintings, then? Maybe some of the brighter ones?”

He could see concern on the girl’s face. “I love your bright paintings!”

“Which ones should I sell, then? If any?”

Rose could not believe the Doctor was the one always encouraging her to follow her heart, rather than Jackie.

The fact she has met the Doctor almost as soon as she has applied for the university did not surprise her. The Time Lord had been encouraging her to free her artistic nature. Apparently, her unhidden passion and delight in her studies has opened some door for the TARDIS to sense the girl’s presence, even across parallel worlds.

The Doctor had only meant to look at her from afar. Just once. But the old girl could not allow him to miss the miraculous opportunity. The Time Lord himself has only needed to look at Rose once to see meeting her again has immediatelly become his only purpose in life, their timelines twisting unimaginably in his mind...

“Hello, Doctor,” she was the first to see him. Expecting for anything from him was out of the question. If their sorrowful farewell has meant anything-

For God’s sake. Rose was unable to stop those unwelcome, desperate tears from falling. She was _happy_! Unbelievably so! Why, then, was she crying? What is the Doctor going to think of her? The Doctor who has claimed to have found her only by tracing her unmistakable joy and expectation.

* * *

 

That had been the best day of Rose's life. She got accepted into the university of her dreams. And then, feeling all giddy and excited, she has found him, grinning at her.

“Some things must _never_ be over,” the Doctor winked at her. “Such as seeing your smile, Rose.”

She exhaled, incredulous. “Is this you... you before, or _after_?” The Doctor was either going to know what she was having in mind or not.

The look on his face darkened. “After.”

Rose sighed at him in relief. “Then... What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to be stuck in our original universe, for good?”

“I needed to see what it was that has got you so excited!” He spoke lightly.

“I am going to study art,” she grinned at him.

“I see!” He could see the sparkle in her eyes perfectly well. “I hope it's going to be an adventure of a lifetime for you... Rose,” the Doctor has barely stopped himself from showering her in a flood of endearments.

“You still haven't answered my question, Doctor,” she reminded him.

“I _am_ a Time Lord, Rose. Some jiggery-pokery, some common knowledge -”

The girl shook her head at him.

“You're right. It have been the TARDIS and your excited self which has led me to you in the first place,” he spoke uncomfortably.

“Is this it?”

“Is _what_ it?”

“You have seen me happy and will go along your merry way?”

“I won't. I can't! There is still one thing I  am not finished with, Rose.”

“Yeah?”

“Well... Do you think they would accept me as a lecturer inside your university? Or a teacher?”

Rose grinned at him. “You're the one carrying the psychic paper around, yes?”

“You're the one carrying the original one,” he shrugged at her. “Have you ever made use of it... Rose?”

“Occasionally,” she sighed.

“Why do you think Pete has decided against allowing us to live with him, like he has clearly intended to?”

The Doctor shook his head, unpleasantly surprised.

“He has accepted Jackie all right, As for me, he hasn't. Mum has refused to allow me live on my own in this unfamiliar world, which is why we are living in a rented flat. Pete has agreed to pay for it, at least.”

“The man has surely appeared more welcoming before...”

“At least he seems perfectly content with Rose the dog,” Rose grimaced.

“What about _you_ , Rose? Are you happy about living here?”

“Right now, I am,” she grinned at him. “If you have somehow managed to become a lecturer in my university, that would be-”

* * *

 

The Doctor's psychic paper has done all the work for him. Not only has he been labelled as having PhD degrees in physics, history and literature, but he has soon surprised everyone as one having answers to every question given.

Rose has begun spending time after the lectures with the Doctor soon enough. Everyone could see something was going on between them, but nobody could ever give any proof to whichever rumours might have begun circling around them.

Even Jackie has only kept pestering her about finding herself a decent bloke – decent meaning rich, of course.

Rose has only been shrugging at her words, determined not to tell her anything until her studies were over.

Now that she was done with university, the girl could not care about a new wave of rumours threatening to erupt – the Doctor has resigned his post on the same day Rose has received her diploma...


	2. Hello, Goodbye

**Previously...**

 

_Now that she was done with university, the girl could not care about a new wave of rumours threatening to erupt – the Doctor has resigned his post the same day Rose has received her diploma..._

* * *

 

 

**Heartstrings**

 

**2\. Hello, Goodbye**

 

“So?” Rose bit her lip anxiously. “What are you going to do now?”

The Doctor looked at her meaningfully, but said nothing, pulling her into a hug instead.

“Wha-”

“We're not alone,” the Time Lord breathed into her. “I won't risk ruining my- your- reputation, not while we're close to the university premises!”

Rose grinned at him. “Is leaving your job the day I have finished my studies not a good enough implication?”

He shook his head. “A lot of your fellow students have finished on the same day! This is in no way a proof of anything!”

“Have you _seen_ them? Ogling at us as if we were-”

“Since when do these things matter to you, love?”

“They don't. God, I just want to go home!”

“To Jackie? That's where we're going, yes?”

Rose rolled her eyes at him. They were both incredibly tense, and it was visible.

“Stop it. I am going to say farewell to my mother, and she doesn't know it yet!”

“Are you sure today's the day Pete's coming to Jackie to give her the money?”

“I'm certain. Four bloody years, Doctor. I have surely memorised _that_.”

“Let's hope Pete's still there. I'd need to talk to him,” the Doctor spoke darkly.

“Let's hope we won't come up on them snogging,” she grimaced. The moment Rose understood Pete's view towards her, she could not help but despise him. The fact her not-really-father has still _dared_ to fill her mother's mind with illusions about their upcoming happiness was only maddening and saddening the girl further.

* * *

 

“Hello, Jackie.”

The mother blinked at the Doctor several times.

“Holy mother of-”

“It's only me. Don't get too agitated, we wouldn't want to bring Rose to tears, do we?”

Jackie gaped at her daughter, then nodded, grim. “What on Eartth have you done to my Rose?”

“We have been doing all sorts of things to and with each other for about... four years now. But that's not what I'm- not what we're here for. Is your husband anywhere nearby?”

Jackie was shaken, not hearing him. _Four. Years._

“Rose?!”

“Yes, we're together,” she spoke dryly.

“And you have been- wait a moment. Have you been studying at all? Or have we been working hard to pay for _nothing_?”

The Doctor should have expected Jackie's fury, he knew it.

Rose was the one calming them both down. “You know as well as I do Pete hasn't paid a penny for my studies. I thank you and all of your male friends who have helped me to reach my goal.”

Pete Tyler has entered the house quietly. “Yes, thank them, Rose. Because neither Jackie nor I have ever paid for any of your useless shiny gismos. Hell, we haven't ever paid for any of her fancy garments, Doctor! Can you imagine what kind of occupations Rose has surely had to get into only to get hold of the enormous amount of new things which were necessary for her at one point or another? How many blokes she has had to lure into paying for her-”

“Enough!” The Doctor thundered, surprised not one muscle has even moved on Rose's face when Pete moved away slightly. “The only man Rose has ever been with while in this world was me. I'm sure Jackie knows it.”

The mother nodded gravely, ignoring Pete Tyler completely.

“Can you at least prove to me my Rose has been studying at all?”

“Every day. I know it, have been an active member in the university life, myself.”

“Really?” Jackie asked, looking for some unnecessary confirmation.

“Yes. In fact...” The Doctor has spread piles of money onto the table. “This should be all you... or your blokes have ever paid for Rose's studies.”

Jackie gasped. “That's a lot of money!”

“It's yours. If you feel like returning some of it to your friends, it's your choice. By the way, the sum given to you is indeed greater than expected. We have finally decided to sell one of Rose's paintings, just so she could prove to you her studies were not useless.”

“In fact, Mum... This one is yours,” Rose has given Jackie another painting. “It's as bright as my heart. Perhaps as bright as yours. This world,” she grimaced, “lacks it. As the Doctor has assured me, you could sell it for a lot of money.”

“Rose does not mean you, Pete. This money and this painting is Jackie's alone. No matter if you two are married or not,” the Doctor spoke seriously.

Rose wrapped her arms around her mother. “I love you, Mum. Will always love you. Right now, you can move in with Pete, properly. I can see you two love each other. With me out of the way-”

Jackie was suddenly hit with a realisation. “Sweetheart! Must you go?”

“Yes, Mum.”

“Whereto?” the mother asked meekly.

“Home,” Rose grinned at her excitedly. Back to the world which she has known all her life. Back to where the unfamiliar, yet welcome abilities were welcome to flower.

“Doctor?” Jackie addressed the Time Lord expectantly.

He looked at her with a tiny smile on his face. “Rose is safe with me.”

“Promise me you won't ever hurt her,” Jackie told him.

“That's the least I can promise,” he assured the anxious woman, suddenly in need to leave the place.

Rose cleared her throat. “By the way, Pete... If anything happens to Mum, we'll be here in a flash!” Something in the girl's eyes seemed nowhere less terrifying that what he had witnessed in the Doctor's eyes. “Of course. What do we do with all the things you're leaving behind?”

“Burn it or sell it,” she spoke thoughtlessly.

The Time Lord cleared his throat. “That is, _if_ you find anything. Rose and I, we can get awfully protective over... things.”

“As my Doctor has been craving to say all day -”

“So long! Must dash,” the Doctor winked at the two people and the couple has disappeared out of sight, the alien's hand safely in Rose's.

* * *

 

“Must dash?” Rose grinned at him the moment they were aboard the TARDIS. A quiet TARDIS.

“ _Allons-y_ ” doesn't really fit here. “ _Courons-y”_ is...

“Blasphemous?”

“Nope,” he smiled. “Just sounds foolish.”

“What have you done to the old girl?” Rose whispered. “Is she... Is she all right? Feels to me as if she's asleep?”

The Time Lord sighed heavily at her. “She is going to need a lot of energy to transport us back,” he said, his voice as quiet as Rose's. “I doubt she is even able to register your presence aboard at this point. I have rarely come to visit her during those years, only to say hello and place some of your invaluable artistic treasures here,” he smirked at her, surprised the TARDIS has enlightened several of her paintings hanging on the walls in the console room at once.

Rose grinned, delighted. “Hello! Maybe you shouldn't be wasting your energy on such trivial things, sweetheart!”

In return, the TARDIS systems have turned down completely.

The Doctor sighed. “She's been more or less left on her own for years. It's only natural she feels capable of taking us anywhere. Which you are, aren't you, old girl?”

The TARDIS has brightened up at once.

 

Too bad the Doctor had forgotten not taking constant care of the Type 40 TARDIS could bring more trouble than joy.

 


	3. Forever True

**Previously...**

 

_ The Doctor sighed. “She's been more or less left on her own for years. It's only natural she feels capable of taking us anywhere. Which you are, aren't you, old girl?” _

_ The TARDIS has brightened up at once. _

 

_ Too bad the Doctor had forgotten not taking constant care of the Type 40 TARDIS could bring more trouble than joy. _

* * *

 

**Heartstrings**

**3\. Forever True**

 

Without saying a word more, the Time Lord understood their proper, family-accepted reunion with the TARDIS was possibly the only thing he could be certain of.

“Hello, old girl,”” Rose tried softly. “We're back.”

The Doctor gulped. “I think, love, she might want more than words from us this time.”

She blinked at him, disbelieving. “The TARDIS? What more could she possibly want?”

“I'm afraid I have promised something to her before leaving to find you,” he blushed. “Now, she's waiting-”

Rose sighed at him. “We have been together for  _ four _ years, ever since my studies began. Doing everything a reunited couple is supposed to do, Doctor. Or is there something else?”

“The old girl is still mad at me for not trying to somehow make use of the unlikely connection you have shared with her when-”

The girl squinted. “Bad Wolf? Wasn't it a one-time occasion?”

The Doctor nodded. “That's what I keep telling her,” he sighed, unable to fully hide his disillusion.

Rose shook her head, smiling slyly at him. “You don't really think I'm being serious, right?” She could remember it all. Every mention, every occasion. The TARDIS had made sure of it. “I remember,” her voice grew quiet. “The snog. Jack. Everything.”

“Why haven't you told me?”

“You didn't ask,” Rose shrugged.

The Doctor nodded, ashamed. “We didn't really have enough time to think about anything else but each other,” he smiled. “The places we have gone to for our relationship not to be discovered…” The Doctor spoke dreamily.

“I don't think the people working in the places you have been taking me to cared about us very much,” Rose giggled.

“No, not at all. The only thing I regret is not taking you to my place close to the university to-”

She rolled her eyes at him, grinning. “We have left with our relationship undiscovered and your reputation untarnished instead!”

“Yes…” The Doctor agreed. The TARDIS was being uncommonly quiet, the lights only dim enough to see one’s way around. It seemed the old girl did not feel like taking them anywhere.

“My love. My Rose,” he breathed, wordlessly asking for her permission to help her out of the heavily decorated dress, one almost too warm for late spring.

“The TARDIS is our home,” Rose exhaled. “Are you, TARDIS?”

The ship has barely buzzed once.

The girl looked at the Doctor curiously. 

“She says she’s sorry,” he translated without a thought, only realising  what the ship was sorry about a moment later.

Rose nodded. “I’m sure we can manage. The most important thing is that we’re here, together.”

The Doctor sighed. “The TARDIS can sense when you’re lying,” he warned her.

“I- I’m sorry, I-” She was feeling defeated. The clever vessel reading her possibly most intimate thoughts was over the top, particularly when her farewell with Jackie has been greatly clouded with the presence of the parallel Pete Tyler. 

“If you need to spend some time alone, love…”

Rose shook her head furiously. “Sometimes, on particularly stressful days in university, all that’s kept me going was knowing I was going to meet you at the end of the  day, my Doctor. Don’t you ever dare to think otherwise,” she sent him a tongue-touched grin, one the Time Lord could never get enough of. 

“Any day, even one as complicated as this one, it becomes better by only-”

An unexpected thought has hit the Time Lord then, his composture darkening. “My darling. I’m afraid the old girl is against us proceeding with anything more than passionate kisses until she’s fully herself again.”

Rose sighed. “A couple of days, weeks, maybe… I’m sure we aren’t quite as desperate for a shag as she must imagine we are,” she shrugged, grinning at him.

The Doctor shook his head, desperate. He has never imagined his faithful old girl would use all of her trump cards so soon. “That’s not what she’s sorry about. She wants… insists I must do something to make you my equal.”

Rose gaped at him. “On what terms? We keep getting each other out of trouble at a more or less equal rate, right?” She eyed him questioningly.

“It’s… Not that. Not really,” the Doctor blushed. “She feels we need to-”

“Calm down, Doctor. It might be the TARDIS is still angry at us, right?” Rose pulled the Time Lord to herself, knowing the closeness might at least ease some of his tension. 

“That’s not it. She’s set up on a path for us. I don’t think you’d approve of her idea of happiness,” he said.

“Do  _ you  _ like it?” Rose asked him quietly. “Do you think  _ I _ would?”

He cleared his throat, determined to let it all out. He hoped Rose was going to understand.

“She says I must teach you telepathic communication, first of all,” the Doctor started from afar. “But telepathy’s not a problem, assuming we follow her suggestion to the letter-”

Rose blinked at him, puzzled. “Telepathy’s not a problem, indeed,” she eyed him meaningfully.

“Isn’t it?” The Doctor was honestly confused.

Rose understood the day must have affected him somewhat, too. “With you being the one showing me just how marvellous telepathic sex can be?”

The Doctor was stunned. “I- what?”

Rose grinned at him. 

“Do you need to be reminded, lover?”

“Rassilon. What have I done? I swear, I thought it all was just a pleasant illusion. Wishful thinking on my part, nothing else…”

Rose shook her head.

He panicked. “If, if-”

“If you keep reacting this way to something so pleasant, Doctor-”

“I have only performed a telepathic sexual intercourse with one person, love,” the unexpected realisation has hit him hard. “With you,” he hurried to assure her. “But telepathy, particularly when used in such intimate acts of devotion… It is a promise. A promise of an eternal bond between two Time Lords.”

Rose exhaled, trying to sound as excited as possible. “Which I’m not. Are you, by any chance, willing to continue with a telepathy-conscious human being instead?”

The Doctor planted an open kiss on Rose’s half-open mouth. “Rose. A possibility to make you one of my kind… It has always existed. I have denied it, for both of our sakes. Now, however-”

Rose gulped, uncertain what to make of it. “Are you offering?”

“Yes!”

“With no way back?”

“None whatsoever.”

She grinned at him. “No way back is just the way I like it!”


End file.
